Guidry, Johnson elected to New Orleans City Council seats

New Orleans voters Saturday sent political novice Susan Guidry and veteran state legislator Jon Johnson to the City Council, completing the roster of lawmakers who will govern New Orleans for the next four years.

Susan Guidry, left, District A; Jon Johnson, District EWith five of the seven council seats decided in the same Feb. 6 primary that saw Mitch Landrieu elected as the next mayor, only the council seats from districts A and E, at opposite ends of the city, remained undecided.

The bitterly contested District A race ended with a surprisingly lopsided win for first-time candidate Guidry, a lawyer and civic activist, over former Councilman Jay Batt, a businessman who was trying to regain the post he lost to Shelley Midura four years ago. Midura, who chose not to run for re-election, backed Guidry, but Batt picked up endorsements from several other officials and had a large advantage over Guidry in fund-raising.

District A comprises the westernmost swath of the city, from Lakeview to Carrollton plus other parts of Uptown and Mid-City.

In the sprawling District E, consisting of much of eastern New Orleans plus the Lower 9th Ward, former state Sen. Johnson defeated incumbent state Rep. Austin Badon.

Johnson will succeed Cynthia Willard-Lewis, who held the District E seat since 2000 but was unable to run this year because of term limits. After losing her bid for an at-large seat last month, she endorsed Johnson in the runoff.

The victories of Guidry and Johnson mean that in a majority-black city, the council will have five white and two black members, a loss of one black member from the current lineup. It also will have five women and two men, compared with four women and three men at present.

Batt's defeat also means the council will continue all-Democratic for the second straight term. For many years the District A seat was held by a Republican, but that tradition ended when Midura ousted Batt four years ago.

The new officials will take office May 3.

With the mayor's race decided and no citywide elections on the ballot, turnout was low in both districts, even compared with the already low turnout in the primary. About 13,000 voters cast ballots in District A and 7,000 voters in District E, which has been sparsely populated since Hurricane Katrina.

Guidry, 55, led a four-candidate field in the primary with 44 percent of the vote, finishing ahead of Batt, who got 39 percent. Batt, 49, had the support of third-place finisher Virginia Blanque, a fellow Republican, while Guidry was backed by Fred Robertson, who ran last.

The District A race grew extremely heated in recent days, with the candidates exchanging allegations of lying, race-baiting, improper use of campaign money and ties with the controversial community group ACORN.

New Orleans police monitored a Lakeview intersection Saturday after reports of verbal altercations between partisans of the opposing factions and passing drivers, an NOPD spokesman said.

Officer Jannsen Valencia said officers were keeping an eye on the busy corner of Harrison Avenue and Canal Boulevard, which was thick with people waving signs for Batt and Guidry. Valencia said some drivers were yelling at people on the neutral ground but no arrests were made.

Badon led the six-candidate primary field in District E with 39 percent of the vote. Johnson, trying to resurrect a political career that spanned 30 years, finished second with 30 percent.

Besides Willard-Lewis' nod, Johnson also had the backing of all four candidates who failed to make the runoff.

Badon, 45, who is serving his second term as the House member from eastern New Orleans' 100th District, had the support of some of the key people he would have to work with at City Hall, including City Council President Arnie Fielkow and Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson.

Johnson, 61, was a state senator representing most of the eastern part of the city and all of the Lower 9th Ward from 1985 to 2003, when he lost a re-election bid. He was a state representative from 1980 to 1985.

After Landrieu won the crowded mayoral primary with 66 percent of the vote, a runoff for the first-ever citywide assessor's office was expected to top Saturday's ballot. But that was canceled two weeks ago when district assessor Erroll Williams was declared the winner after his opponent, fellow assessor Claude Mauberret, withdrew.

In the City Council races decided last month, Fielkow and Clarkson were re-elected to the two at-large positions, and voters also returned Stacy Head in District B and Cynthia Hedge-Morrell in District D.

The new District C member is Kristin Gisleson Palmer, former executive director of the Preservation Resource Center's Rebuilding Together program. She will succeed James Carter, who did not seek re-election. *******Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3320.